STPHobby released a new version of the Armor 5″ BNF FPV Drone, the Armor 5C! No big changes, just small improvements in my opinion. The hardware is top notch, and with some customization it can be an awesome quad!
Table of Contents
Where to Buy?
Available receiver options: No RX / Crossfire Nano / ELRS 2.4GHz.
- Banggood: https://oscarliang.com/product-25m8
- AliExpress: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DEueW2L
LiPo Battery: https://oscarliang.com/product-alyy
It doesn’t come with battery. 6S 1100mAh-1300mAh are good choices, here are my LiPo battery recommendations. Also get some spare propellers as it only comes with one set (4 props).
Spare props:
Specs and Features
Digital Version
- Wheelbase : 215mm
- Top plate thickness : 2mm
- Bottom plate thickness : 2mm
- Middle plate thickness : 3mm
- FC : BLADE F722
- ESC : BLADE 50A SPORT
- VTX : VISTA VIT
- Antenna : CHERRY
- Motor : Reactor Training 2207 1960KV
- Camera : RUNCAM LINK HD Digital system
Analog Version
- Wheelbase : 215mm
- Top plate thickness : 2mm
- Bottom plate thickness : 2mm
- Middle plate thickness : 3mm
- FC : BLADE F722
- ESC : BLADE 50A SPORT
- VTX : TANK MINI
- Antenna : CHERRY
- Motor : Reactor Training 2207 1960KV
- Camera : Ratel2
Closer Look
Basically the exact same specs as the original STPHobby Armor 5″. The main changes are:
- Colorful injection moulded plastic side plates
- Small changes in bottom plate design for better strength
- Different camera in the digital version
- Improved skits under the motors
I guess the letter C in the Armor 5C means Color – because of the colorful side plates.
And aren’t they eye-catching? The first thing I noticed were the colourful injection moulded plastic side plates. They feel like more durable than the previous side plates and don’t crack easily when you pull too hard. They protects your electronics from water splash and grass juice, but personally I think they are more for the aesthetic purposes, and they add quite a bit of weight to the drone. Personally I’d remove them.
The skits under the motors/arms have been redesigned and are stronger now. Frame edges are all chamferred, really smooth, also seems to have a layer of glue coating on the carbon fibre to protect the frame from delamination in crashes. Definitely feels like a premium quality frame.
There are fewer cutouts in the bottom plate for improved durability, a welcome change. Arms are stiff and sturdy, no movement at all when pulling with hands. However the arms are quite narrow and at 5mm thick, they are a bit “skinny” for my taste. I think it would be beneficial to flight performance if the arms are 6mm thick and a little wider, also makes it more durable as well.
In the digital version I am reviewing, it’s now using the Runcam Phoenix HD camera instead of the DJI OG camera. The OG camera has better image quality, I am guessing the change is to reduce cost, but it’s still a decent camera.
The top plate and the rest of the quad are exactly the same as the previous version.
Still using the same motors – RushFPV Reactor Training 2207 1960KV, it’s quite an aggressive KV for 6S. They have “spikes” on the motor bell to have a more solid grip on the props. Motor screws are well tightened.
The ExperssLRS receiver is mounted between the XT60 leads with a zip tie. The ELRS RX uses Happymodel EP1/2 2.4GHz RX firmware.
- 423g
- 626g with 6S 1100mAh
- 748g with 6S 1100mAh and GoPro 7 (w/o TPU mount)
It’s about 5 grams heavier than the original version, I’d consider that pretty heavy as a 5″ FPV freestyle drone.
How to Setup
It comes with Betaflight 4.2.9. Board: RUSH/BLADE_F7_HD(STM32F7X2). Here’s the original CLI diff.
Here’s how to plug in the USB cable to the FC.
Receiver is not configured despite it comes with ExpressLRS RX (it was set to SBUS in Betaflight, not CRSF). And you should enable Telemetry too. The receiver is the Radiomaster EP1 with ELRS 2.0 firmware pre-flashed. However, the Device Category is Happymodel 2.4GHz, and Device is HappyModel EP 2400 RX. I flashed it to V3.0 via Betaflight passthrough without any issue.
GPS is configured and operational out of the box.
Note that it runs props out (reversed motor direction).
Here’s the manual how to assemble the frame.
And you can easily access the USB port on the Vista too. The Runcam Link video transmitter comes with 0606 firmware and requires activation. I just rooted it right away to get full OSD support.
Flight Performance
What they changed from the previous version in terms of Tuning:
- They enabled bi-directional DShot and RPM filter
- Reduced Gyro lowpass slider from 1.0 to 1.2
- Reduced D-Term lowpass slider from 1.0 to 1.1
- Lowered P and D gains slightly
Without making any changes to the tune, the Armor 5C basically flies almost identical to the last version (the Armor 5″). In my opinion, there’s a lot of room for improvement when it comes to tuning, this quad can fly so much better and has a lot of potential.
Checking noise, pretty good there, nothing unusual.
Filtering definitely can be reduced, and PID can be bumped up a lot. I am guessing they are being conservative because these BNF drones are being shipped to every corner in the world, the different climate and environment can have huge impact on flight performance.
In this post I documented my process how to make this quad lighter.
